Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Gone to the Litblogs: Kim Roberts's Top 5 Litblogs

The Madam asks me about my top 5 blogs. Many of my favorite blogs are ones I have a personal connection to. I guess that's not uncommon (we all like to read blogs in which there's a possibility we might actually get mentioned). But it makes the first half of my list highly subjective. So here goes:

Three favorite blogs by people I know:

1. Vrzhu Bullets of LoveThis blog includes some fascinating entries from Michael Gushue on NatPoWriMo (with links to others who also took on the challenge to write a new poem every single day of April, and his last day's poem, a terrific sestina). Dan Vera offers some great entries on the birthdays and death days of famous writers. These guys are also my publishers, so I have a vested interest. And yes, my name can be found in the blog.

2. The Happy BookerOK--I'm friends with Wendi Kaufman. But I swear this is true: I was reading her blog regularly before we met. I love the focus on the DC literary community. That is not to say the blog is parochial or narrow. Far from it. The Booker is always informative and stimulating. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have been a guest blogger. So my name appears.

3. Bill Knott's BlogI swear that I do NOT appear anywhere in this blog. But Knott was my teacher. And there's not a quirkier sensibility out there. Read these poems!

The second part of my list is arguably not about literature, but some might argue that EVERYTHING is eventually about literature, and I know that I find these blogs inspiring. I have no connection to these people. But I think I'd like them.

4. The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher SocietyDebunked scientific and medical theories, extreme architecture, anachronistic cooking, strange collections...you could easily get lost in this site and never re-emerge. Or re-emerge profoundly changed. This blog is packed with wonder and awe.

5. The Daily RenderManipulated aerial maps made into beautiful quilt-like patterns by Nikolas Schiller. Some are strikingly beautiful, some are rather sinister. There's an entire section of maps of DC. Among other treats.

I should come clean and say that while I love looking at blogs, I have never, not even once, responded to one on the actual blog site. I am a ghost in the machine. I guess this officially makes me a Blurker. Is that blad?

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WELCOME, CURIOUS AMD ADVENTUROUS READER!

I am novelist, essayist and literary translator C.M. Mayo and this is my main blog where you will find a post every Monday. Subjects include books, creative process, cyberflanerie, Far West Texas (the subject of my book in-progress), history, literary travel writing, literary translation, and Mexico, where I have been living for some 30 years. I am the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction; in 2017 I was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. For more about the history and philosophy of this blog, see"Writers' Blogs (And My Blog): Eight Conclusions After 8 Years of Blogging" and this post on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, and this post on its 11th. And for more about my books, articles, podcasts, and writing workshops I invite you to visit www.CMMAYO.com.

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VISIT MY OTHER BLOGS (NO, I DO NOT BLOG ALL DAY THOUGH THAT SURE WOULD BE FUN)

The blog for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project: Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts, 2012-2013. All about the podcasts, plus photos, books, videos, and more about Marfa and the Big Bend. This blog and the podcasts are apropos of a work in progress, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas.

A once-in-a-while-on-Tuesdays blog to share my (copius) research and other information related to my novel set during the 1860s in Mexico-- that tumultuous period known as the Second Empire or French Intervention.

Finally, after numerous attempts, I tackled the behemoth in 2011. This blog, now closed but ever open for perusal, I kept for myself, for fellow W&P travelers past, present and future, and for my writing workshop students so they can see precisely what I mean by "reading as a writer."

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